GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) was founded in 1992 as the national research institution for geosciences in Germany and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres. It is Germany’s premier research centre for geosciences, with strong links to leading institutes across Europe. It has an annual budget of more than 70 million Euros and a staff of about 1300 employees including more than 500 scientists and more than 200 PhD students. GFZ conducts multidisciplinary research in seven departments on topics ranging across the full breadth of the Earth Sciences from global processes, plate boundary systems and georesources, to earth surface – climate interactions and natural hazards. In particular, GFZ has a strong tradition in the global monitoring of our planet with geophysical and remote sensing techniques but also operates major, multi-disciplinary regional observatories. All work at the GFZ benefits from generous technical support and a uniquely comprehensive range of state-of-the-art equipment. GFZ has formal collaborations with institutions from more than 60 countries and more than 40 joint professor appointments link it closely to the surrounding universities.

The remote sensing section, in particular, operates a spectral laboratory including Perkin-Elmer spectro-radiometers for the reflected (VNIR-SWIR) and thermal (FTIR) domain as well as several field spectrometers. The Modtran code and ATCOR are used for atmospheric- and illumination modeling. A structural whole-plant simulator for three-dimensional plant modeling and a ray tracing software support simulation studies on BRDF issues. Numerous in-house algorithms and programs, necessary for the solution of specific remote sensing tasks, are developed, such as a specific ‘end-to-end’ simulator for the design and simulation of hyperspectral sensor systems.

Main tasks in the project

GFZ will contribute to the tasks of WP4 and provide aircraft LiDAR data as well as hyperspectral and RGB imagery along the Canadian and partly Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast acquired during previous (2012, 2013, 2016) and upcoming surveys (currently scheduled for 2018).